Shooting in AV

Just when you think you live in a safe neighborhood, you wake up the harsh realities. Less then 2 miles from my house, a spot that barely 4 hours earlier, I had biked past 3 times doing multiple loops, a convenience store clerk was found shot in the head. Will they catch whoever did this? Will they ever discover a motive? Who knows... but regardless, violence this close to home is scary. About 2 years ago, at our former apartment in Boise, Idaho, the same thing happened. I had stopped at a Taco Bell about 3 blocks from our apartment at 9:30pm to grab some food. 10:00pm that same night, a man shot and killed his girlfriend in the Taco Bell parking lot.

As Andrea was leaving for work this afternoon at 1:30pm, apparently a channel 5 news van was in our culdesac. They approached Andrea asking her questions about our neighbors, who they tracked down through a license plate or something. They said it was in relation to the shooting. This seemed very odd, especially since our neighbors moved out about 2 weeks ago, and there doesn't seem to be any connection.

It's days like today I have serious doubts about my choice to bring a child into this world. When I hear about violence at Apple Valley High School, I wonder, "What is it going to be like in 14 years when my daughter would be going there?" Is private school the only answer to providing an education in a safe environment? (and along those lines, are the wealthy the only ones that deserve to live in safe, violence free neighborhoods?) I thought that AVHS was a pretty nice, safe, school - but that was 11 years ago. What will the school be like 25 years later? Is that the same as comparing an inner city school of 1980, to how it is today in 2005?

As much as I want to shield my daughter from these harsh realities of the world, I realize it would just do more harm then good. But how do you teach your kids independence at the same time wanting to protect them from all the bad things in life? Thankfully I have time to figure that out, but it seems like a very hard thing to come to grips with.